We're hanging out at our old Blogspot. whatabouroutdaughters.com is down :(

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Now pause and let that marinate for a minute. HALF! Now granted the sample size was 800 girls in the study, but the CDC is reporting that one in four teen girls is infected with an STD- That is bad, but when they break it down by race, it is heart breaking:

An estimated 3.2 million U.S. girls ages 14 and 19 -- about 26 percent of that age group -- have a sexually transmitted infection such as the human papillomavirus or HPV, chlamydia, genital herpes or trichomoniasis, the CDC said.

Forty-eight percent of black teen-age girls were infected, compared to 20 percent of whites and 20 percent of Mexican American girls. The report did not give data on the broader U.S. Hispanic population.

"What we found is alarming," the CDC's Dr. Sara Forhan, who led the study, told reporters. "This means that far too many young women are at risk for the serious health effects of untreated STDs, including infertility and cervical cancer."Reuters

This means Black teenage girls are more than TWICE as likely to have an STD than their White and Hispanic counterparts. Now the most frequent occurrence in HPV, but if they contracted HPV, they could have easily have contracted HIV or something else that the Dr. can't give you a shot for.

I suspect that all of the sex education in the world won't convince some girls to protect themselves when vying for the "attention" of a male...any male. In a world where young Black girls are bombarded my messages that the only thing they have to offer is their bodies. In a world where older men and boys are targeting teen girls without the judgment to realize that in exchange for the "attention"of a male, any male, they are risking their mental health, their fertility and their lives...this isn't a crisis of condoms, it is a crisis of conscience.